So I began to attempt a Lucid dream these past few days and it has been a difficult journey.I've done the Reality checks and journal and every night I relax my body so it becomes heavy. I always repeat "I am lucid. The world is vivid" and i combine that with the fact that my body is heavy. After a while, i can feel my body beginning to fall asleep and I can feel this weird sensation in my brain like when im taking a hard test. But! I always fall asleep and never lucid. Every time i've tried to become lucid, i end up falling asleep and accomplishing nothing but your average sleep. What can I do?

ninjah42 wrote:I've done the Reality checks and journal and every night I relax my body so it becomes heavy. I always repeat "I am lucid. The world is vivid" and i combine that with the fact that my body is heavy. After a while, i can feel my body beginning to fall asleep and I can feel this weird sensation in my brain like when im taking a hard test. But! I always fall asleep and never lucid. Every time i've tried to become lucid, i end up falling asleep and accomplishing nothing but your average sleep. What can I do?

What you're describing is trying to "fall asleep" and then "become lucid" during the dream. So of course you're falling asleep.

You're not doing anything to prevent that. You're kind of mistaking two separate methods for one. As I said, the "reality check", "dream journal" and affirmations ("I am lucid") all point towards what I mentioned above. They're ways to increase the chances that you'll randomly become lucidly aware while you're dreaming.

Now, the problem you're specifically talking about regarding "always falling asleep"... means that you're trying to induce a WILD (Wake Induced Lucid Dream). This requires something slightly different than reality checks, dream journals or affirmations... doing a WILD requires you to keep your mind awake and consciously aware as you slip into the non-physical state. There are plenty of WILD techniques out there, do a search on this forum... or on google and give'em a try.

Most of them focus upon keeping your mind active in some way as your body slips into sleep.

Give one a try, let us know how it goes and if you're still having issues.. please feel free to ask.

You may be trying to hard and this can be counter-productive. This is one of the things that Stephen LaBerge has pointed out. Have a relaxed approach by using autosuggestion, for example, as the cocksure approach usually leads to frustration.

Get into the habit of performing reality checks during the day after asking yourself "am I dreaming"? Look around for anomalies, look at the tip of your index for more than 10 seconds...does it become distorted? Can you remember how you got to the environment that you are in? Can you remember what happened a few moments earlier? Pretty soon, you will be inducing many lucid dreams.

"Empty cognizance of one taste, suffused with knowing, is your unmistaken nature, the uncontrived original state. when not altering what is, allow it to be as it is, and the awakened state is right now spontaneously present."

Ryan - interesting comment. I tried for a while to repeat "I am dreaming" while drifting off to sleep and it worked that a couple of times I recalled those words after getting to sleep, acted on them and became Lucid. As a way to induce a WILD it sucks as all it does is focus you and helps lose awareness. I do find it a great way to get to sleep and even tried " I will not go to sleep" its great and counting back from 100-I will not go to sleep, 99-I will not go to sleep, I can get to about 60 something each time and go to sleep.

Peter

Who are you I asked, the reply "dont be silly, we are your daughers" many years before they were born

Peter wrote:Ryan - interesting comment. I tried for a while to repeat "I am dreaming" while drifting off to sleep and it worked that a couple of times I recalled those words after getting to sleep, acted on them and became Lucid. As a way to induce a WILD it sucks as all it does is focus you and helps lose awareness. I do find it a great way to get to sleep and even tried " I will not go to sleep" its great and counting back from 100-I will not go to sleep, 99-I will not go to sleep, I can get to about 60 something each time and go to sleep.

Peter

Hi Peter

The counting you mention is a really good way to practice WILDs.It would seem that you're losing focus around the 60-mark though. Which is why you're falling asleep. If you lose focus for even a split second, especially when you're physically tired, you will fall asleep.

Doing this right before bed probably isn't the best of time for it. If you wake up in the middle of the night often like I do, that's a good time to practice as you've already had a bit of sleep and your mind is still in that "perfect state" for Phasing (WILD).

ninjah42 wrote:I've been trying to naturally go into a LD. But over the past 2 weeks I have had no success. I keep having normal dreams and i can never go into a state of lucidity. I've tried everything.

You mean trying to do a WILD?If you're "naturally" trying to just fall asleep and retain your conscious awareness, then you might encounter a bit of trouble.

Your goal is effectively to keep your mind consciously aware and active as your body slowly drifts off to sleep.

ninjah42 wrote:But letting your body fall asleep, how do you do that without falling asleep?I can get my body to be completely heavy and very numb but I can't seem to be concscious, i get tired and fall asleep

In a nutshell, you relax your body to allow it to fall asleep... yet at the same time you keep your mind busy by focusing it upon doing something else.